50-1805. CONTRACTS FOR DISTRIBUTION OF WATER, COLLECTION AND REMISSION OF IRRIGATION DISTRICT ASSESSMENTS. Every city incorporated under the laws of the state of Idaho shall have the power to enter into a contract in writing with an irrigation district organized or hereafter organized under the laws of the state of Idaho, or with any person, association or corporation where water has been purchased or is being furnished or used for lands within said irrigation district and within the boundaries of any such city, whereby such city shall assume the duty of the distribution of such water to the persons within such city having the right to the use thereof, and to receive such water at such place as shall be provided for in such contract. Such city may enter into a contract with any irrigation district to act as the agent of the irrigation district and be empowered to collect any or all assessments or charges which such irrigation district shall be authorized by law to levy upon all or any part of the lands within such city. Such assessments shall be entered upon the assessment roll as herein provided under an appropriate column to be known as "………….. Irrigation District Assessments" and shall remit to such irrigation district, annually or at more frequent intervals as the contract may provide[,] all moneys collected on account of such levy for the previous year or other remittance period provided by the contract, less the commission contracted to be paid for such collection. If the assessments become delinquent and the property is redeemed from such delinquency, the city shall remit the proportionate part of the amount collected on such delinquency, as the amount due for bonds and interest on such parcels of property shall bear to the other assessments contained in the original tax levy. If a tax deed is taken by the city and thereafter the property so taken is sold as provided in sections 50-1801 through 50-1835, Idaho Code, the irrigation district shall likewise receive its proportionate part of the sale price of such property so sold. Such city shall be entitled to compensation, for collecting assessments and making payments to the irrigation district, in an amount equal to the actual cost which the city incurred in collecting and making such payments. The city shall certify to the district annually, not less than three (3) weeks before the date set for making the annual assessment by the district, the amount set by the city as the cost of collecting and making such payments to the district, and that amount shall be included by the district in its assessments or charges for that year against the lands for which the city collects and makes payments to the district as provided by the contract. Nothing in sections 50-1801 through 50-1835, Idaho Code, shall be construed to make said city primarily liable for any such irrigation district assessments to be collected or obligations, except for the faithful remittance of the funds collected; provided, however, that under contracts where water rights are pooled for delivery and a uniform method of allocating the assessments and charges of the district has been adopted as authorized by section 50-1805A, Idaho Code, the city shall be primarily liable for all such irrigation district assessments to be collected, including operation, maintenance, and principal and interest on bonded or contract indebtedness.

History:

[50-1805, added 1967, ch. 429, sec. 360, p. 1249; am. 1981, ch. 31, sec. 1, p. 49.]